Internal And External Conflicts In Night By Elie Wiesel

Anna Hathorn
Ronda Beaudoin
Honors English 10
6 March 2023
Elizer Wiesel’s Responses to Internal and External Conflicts and How They Shape His Identity

The Holocaust caused the persecution of approximately six million Jews, all which went through internal and external conflicts. Eliezer is a one in 6 million accounts of the Holocaust, but he speaks for so many others that had their voice taken from them. He gives readers a first person account of the anguish that many went through. In Night, written by Eliezer Wiesel, the author's responses to internal and external conflicts develop his identity by displaying changes in his environment, his struggle with his religious beliefs, and his realization of how cruel the world is.
Eliezer Wiesel

He is having a hard time staying true to his faith while going through such pain. Before the Holocaust, he only saw God as a forgiving and merciful God. He said to himself, “How could I say to Him: Blessed be thou, Almight, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in furnaces” (67). He does not realize God can be a harsh and challenging God as well. He struggles to come to terms with why God wouldn’t condemn the Nazi’s for commiting such crimes. “Blessed be God’s name? Why? Why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled. He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves. He kept six crematoria working day and night including Sabbath and the Holy Days'' (67). At this point in the book Eliezer is feeling a lot of resentment towards God. He does not understand how and why his fellow Jews continue to turn to him. Why can they not see that God put them in this place? Eliezer would “never forget those flames that consumed [his] faith forever” (34). The text displaces that Eliezer was a very religious person in the beginning of the book. But, as the text goes on it is shown how easily that faith and belief goes